Overcoming Thoughts (I Know, Part 2)


I gave a look at my thought processes the other day, what fear did to my mind and a bit on how I overcame it. You can read that HERE. I'd like to expand on it today because it will help you find peace in the current mental climate. On a personal note, I have no secrets about what happened to me, which was part of my overcoming it. Secrets are incredibly destructive. I seek to be totally transparent. I know what I was and what God has done in me since then. I find it amazing that what so many are facing is the same battle, only I don't have to fight it. I've done so already and have formed new habits of thought.

There are two areas of thought I had to overcome. (1) NOT thinking about what I was afraid of at every breath (2) NOT worrying about what it looked like I couldn't afford.

I will talk about the second one first because it goes back further than my bout with fear. A few years after we were married, my husband and I found ourselves in serious financial hardship. For a time, we didn't even have a phone. We couldn't pay the bill. Buying groceries was a serious budget battle, and one day, I was standing in the grocery store with $20 to buy what we needed for the next two weeks. Yeah. Impossible. But God gave me a strategy that carried over into when my mind was so weak in 2007. He said to look each day to what I needed.

Paul addresses this in Philippians 4:11. "For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

Contentment is a choice. I had to choose to be content with that $20. That sounds irrational, but God showed me to look at WHAT I HAD instead of WHAT I LACKED. So, each day, I would ask myself what did I HAVE for meals, what could we eat that day, and what was the one thing I was completely out of. What did I need to buy that I could not do without? I cannot tell you how much those questions saved me. I saw how God provided for me day-to-day. If I needed toilet paper, I had $2 to buy it (this was before today's prices).

Then when 2007 happened, what I'd learned to do, years before, became extremely valuable. Though it didn't have to do with finances so much, I asked myself what did I have? A home, a car, a job, loving parents, a beautiful daughter, etc. I had so many wonderful things.

Now, turning to my first point, it bounces off of that. How did I NOT think about fear? How did I make fear NOT my first reaction? It required that same deliberate choice.

"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:4-8)

Paul outlines what to do in these verses from Philippians.

1. Rejoice always.

Always is always. It means even when your down, frustrated, angry, fearful. Find something to rejoice over. And the word "rejoice" requires you to speak. You have to SAY what you are rejoicing over.

"Thank you, God, that I can breathe today." Start there if need be. I started with "Thank you, God, that you love me."

2. Don't be anxious.

"Be careful for nothing" is another way of saying don't be anxious. It sounds ridiculous of Paul to make anxiety something you CHOOSE not to do, but remember, step 1? REJOICE, is part of the HOW you do that.

Again, you must SAY IT. "Today, I will not be anxious." If your body and your mind act otherwise, then say it again. "TODAY I WILL NOT BE ANXIOUS." Get angry at it. Be forceful. "THIS is the day the Lord hath made. I WILL REJOICE and BE GLAD in it."

3. Pray with thanksgiving.

Prayer done in faith comes from a place of peace and contains thankfulness. It isn't a frantic, "God, help meeeeee," and I've prayed plenty of those in my distress. But it's a deliberate prayer made ON PURPOSE despite what my emotions are screaming at me. I CHOOSE to be thankful. I choose to make thanksgiving the focus of my prayer.

4. Thanksgiving and rejoicing will give you peace.

I didn't write it. Paul did. Learning to worship and praise when I felt like weeping and/or throwing up brought me incredible freedom. I knew my feelings were lying to me. I chose to rejoice because I had enough supplies that particular day. God had done so many wonderful things for me. If I got sick anyhow, I rejoiced that I wasn't sick, the next hour. If the night was long and scary, I rejoiced that the sun came up, and in so doing, more and more I allowed peace to protect my mind.

5. Choose what you think on.

I find it incredible that truth, honesty, and justice are the first three things we are told to think on. Before virtue. Before purity and loveliness. Before good reports.

And thinking on them requires speaking them, I would point out. God hates a lying tongue. He calls a false witness an abomination. He loves a just weight, a just balance. This is why transparency brings so much freedom.

If you need help, ask for help. If you have an area of dishonesty in your life, which doesn't necessarily mean you are ripping someone off, then admit to it and ask for forgiveness. God knows our thoughts. He knows our motives. He sees us wherever we are, in the light or in the dark. (Ps 139) Put this in your heart, and you will find such freedom. It may be as simple as saying to someone, "I feel anxious today. Can you pray for me?"

Skipping down, virtue is a word that frankly we don't understand. It's more than a woman with a heart of gold and a chastity belt. In the Old Testament, the word translated "virtuous" is also translated "valiant." The woman of Proverbs 31 is virtuous, but David was valiant. The men of Israel were valiant AND virtuous. You can say it either way.

We think of someone valiant as being brave but someone virtuous as being weak. Reread the passage about the virtuous woman again and think of her as valiant. She is brave. She is strong. She can handle her life. That's the context. Not that she's trying to measure up to some female ideal. If you want to go that direction, then a valiant man is also a virtuous one. God never applies one trait to one gender and not the other.

These verses in Philippians 4 are proof because we see "pure" and "lovely" in the list. Something "lovely" is something "acceptable." What does that mean? Well, look back at Philippians 3:18-19. Here is the UNLOVELY.

"(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)" (Philippians 3:18-19)

The next verse, verse 20, says our "conversation is in heaven." That doesn't mean it's boring. It means we CHOOSE what we think about and how we will act as a result.

I left a "good report" last because the Bible is the GOOD NEWS. This is the meaning of the word "gospel." The best thing you can do to retrain your mind is to put the Scriptures in it. It takes perseverance. You will forget to do it a lot at the start, but if you persist and refuse to stop, then one day, you'll realize just how far you've come.

There'll be a day when the world's gone crazy but you're joyful, laughing even, content with your life, and you'll ask yourself, "When did this happen?"

Oh, right. I chose to be this way. I chose to change who I was, and how marvelous God is in me!

Photo by Sincerely Media


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.feelgoodromance.com
www.suzannedwilliams.com


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